Legal threat to councils over rape victims

More than 100 councils will today be threatened with legal action over their failure to provide rape crisis centres and domestic violence support services, with a strongly worded warning issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Research reveals that one in four local authorities in Britain offer no specialised services for women who have faced violence or abuse, and shows that a quarter of those rape crisis centres that are still operating believe they will either have to close or radically cut services in 2009.

Annual arrests of teenage girls and women have reached record levels, with more than 250,000 detained by the police according to the latest official figures.

Ministry of Justice statistics published today show that last year youth offending teams dealt with 22% more crimes committed by girls aged 10 to 17, fuelling fears that a new “ladette culture” is emerging on Britain’s streets.

The biggest council house building programme for decades was ordered by Gordon Brown yesterday as he urged town halls to rescue the construction industry and help to kick-start the economy.

Treasury rules that have stopped local authorities from building social housing should be relaxed to allow councils to borrow more money and to keep the proceeds from rents and sales, the Prime Minister said. Read more on this story in The Times

Our website uses cookies, which are small text files that are widely used in order to make websites work more effectively. To continue using our website and consent to the use of cookies, click click 'Continue'. Find out more.